As Meriah Doty, from Movie Talk, put it, “…with a perfect tan, Herculean physique, and hypnotizing sea-green eyes…[Finnick Odair] is tailor-made for Hollywood casting conjecture.” Excuse the pun, but it’s a game I, myself, have been playing since I completed Catching Fire. I don’t think I’m necessarily adding too much new information to the conversation of who should play Finnick, but I figured it’d be fun to at least give my reasoning for why I concur with some of the popular candidates by outlining my top two choices.
My first choice is based almost purely aesthetically based. I think Jesse Williams, of Grey’s Anatomy notoriety, would be a fine choice. I actually first fell in love with him when he appeared in the sequel of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. He has that tan complexion so vividly described in the book and a svelte swimmer’s body. His eyes in real life are actually a green of oceanic perfection. In short, he is the epitome of how Collins rendered the character with real-world raw sexual attractiveness. However, when I said “almost purely aesthetically based”, a small part of me wants to cast a person of color to further stick it to the so many who believe (often caustically) anyone whose racial make-up isn’t explicitly stated in a novel must be portrayed by someone white in the film adaptation, especially if the character is likable. It’s infuriatingly small-minded. With that said, I think there are shortcomings to casting Williams. He’s always been cast as second to the alpha male of any film or TV show. Though he exhibits, physically, someone in charge of their sexual magnetism, his camera persona, to me, has always been quite beta male.
My second choice, and my top choice, is Armie Hammer. The first film set a precedent to deviate from casting based on real-life cosmetic features, because they can be altered during production; namely, Josh Hutcherson is not a natural blonde and he put on 15 pounds of muscle to play the role of Peeta Mellark. I was actually very elated to see Hutcherson in that role (I first typed “roll”—must have bread on the brain) because I was impressed by his delicately complex acting in The Kids Are Alright. Did Gary Ross utilize Hutcherson’s acting to its full potential, that’s another question. (The answer is no; nevertheless, I’m excited to see where Francis Lawrence takes his character.) For similar reasons, I can see Hammer smashing the role of Finnick if given the opportunity. He’d need to trim down since he doesn’t quite have the same streamlined body type described in the book. Also shave his chest hair and get a tan, but that goes without saying. Can I volunteer to hold the razor and apply the tanner? Hammer, although not quite island-attractive, floored me in The Social Network and J Edgar. In the first film, he demonstrated a cool and easy likability and refinement playing twins of (semi-)celebrity status. I don’t think Finnick is too different. In the other film, opposite Leonardo Dicaprio, he not only held his own, but often stole focus with the same cool and easy likability from TSN further complemented by a very nuanced, developed, multi-layered character capable of conveying surreptitious desire, secret love, protective tendencies, intellectual and physical control over situations and a veritable cornucopia (see what I did there) of other emotional complexities.
All in all, I hope they get it right. Although Finnick is written as 24, he’ll have to be played by someone who reads older than Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. But he can’t be too old since it’s a point that he won the Games when he was so young. The role is a lot more involved than casting someone who can play sexy. *Spoiler Alert* They also have to play used up, tortured, mad, hopeful, secretive, courageous, selfless, romantic, vengeful, stabilizing, etc. They have to be able to carry the role and develop it over the course of three films. Don’t just cast a pretty boy joke of an actor, please.
